A shortened Springfield Armory M1A with a Sage EBR (Enhanced Battle Rifle) chassis installed. Considered the modernization of the M14 platform, the EBR has been fielded in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some people can’t get over the appearance; preferring the classic wood or even polymer silhouette of the original M14 stock.

Winchester Model 1894 (also known as Winchester 94 or Win 94) is a lever-action rifle which became one of the most famous and popular hunting rifles. It was designed by John Browning in 1894 and originally chambered to fire two metallic black powder cartridges, the .32-40 Winchester and .38-55 Winchester. It was the first rifle to chamber the smokeless powder round, the .30 WCF (Winchester Center Fire}. This round was later chambered by Marlin which designated it the .30-30, which used the black powder cartridge nomenclature of using the caliber as the first number and the grains of powder as the second. Marlin used this nomenclature in order not to promote its competitor’s products. The .30-30 name finally became synonymous with the cartridge and Winchester ultimately dropped the .30 WCF nomenclature. The 1894 was produced by Winchester Repeating Arms Company through 1980 and then by U.S. Repeating Arms under the Winchester brand until they ceased to manufacture rifles in 2006. The rifles are back in production today, being made by the Miroku company of Japan and imported into the United States by the Browning Arms company of Morgan, Utah.

The Model 1894 has been referred to as the “ultimate lever-action design” by firearms historians such as R. L. Wilson and Hal Herring. The Model 1894 is the rifle credited with the name “Winchester” being used to refer to all rifles of this type and was the first commercial sporting rifle to sell over 7,000,000 units.

In the 1970’s Winchester invented a new game called Wingo, basically a shooting game which turned clay pigeon shooting into a carnival like indoor shooting game. The game consisted of ten shots where the shooter had to hit a small 4 inch diameter hollow ball of ice which was thrown toward the shooter by a special ice machine 50 or 75 feet away. Scoring was based on the accuracy and speed of hitting the target. The ice balls were ejected from one of five ports, and the opposing team could choose which port it was ejected from and how fast it was thrown. An automatic program was also created for solo players. The gun itself was a specially made lever action shotgun that fired .20 caliber shells. The reason for using .20 caliber shotshells instead of the more common .22 caliber shotshells was to ensure participants didn’t bring ammo from home, and thus were forced to buy the ammo from Winchester at a Wingo facility. To ensure the safety of participants, the gun was permanently attached to a shooting bench preventing it being pointed at spectators, and the gun programmed to fire only when an ice ball was launched. In addition, the low powered .20 caliber shotshell produced little sound, protecting the hearing of participants. Only 20 Wingo .20 caliber shotguns were ever produced, making them rare collectibles today.

The sport of Wingo only lasted a year when in 1971 when Winchester opened a Wingo facility in San Diego, California. Winchester also formed teams and competitive leagues. Unfortunately due to its high cost of $1 per round ($6 dollars when adjusted for inflation), the high cost of .20 caliber shotshells of which Winchester only made in limited quantities, and its location in an area where that lacked popularity of shooting sports, the Wingo facility closed in less than a year. Winchester never attempted to resurrect the sport afterwords.